Strife and Knife
by Arbitrary Escape
Summary: The consequences of Pain's assault on Konohagakure were the first step to peace; Konohagakure just had to pick up its pieces first.
1. Introduction

If everyone dies in the Pein attack, all of the Hyuuga should be dead - and as they are revived, there should be no 'Branch' House because the mark should disappear by death. Or are they active simply because Pein did not exactly cause 'death' but simply removal of souls?

My challenge is this: **Pain: Strife and Knife - the Hyuuga's Descent.**

Konoha has taken a turn for the better after Pein's massive strike - at least, as a community. However, as a nation, they are suffering. While Pein may have spared the lives of all whom he killed, he could not heal all the wounds inflicted. The damage is simply too much: the once-mightiest of all Shinobi nations must learn to rebuild and assert its dominance. And rebuild they will - but is everyone capable of standing together? Although Konoha as a whole has grown tight-knit, there is still darkness festering under the Leaf's shade. For many clans, a time to the Reconstruction has brought many of them together.

Including the Hyuuga - at least one the surface. But after the tip of the iceberg, Hyuuga Hinata finds herself surrounded by deceit, conflicts, and, most frightening of all, changes. Nobody would or could have ever expected an attack on the scale Pein initiated. Therefore, no one would have ever predicted the entire Hyuuga clan dying at once - both Main and Branch Houses. None of the other clans had paid too much attention to that fact; they were too busy rebuilding, after all. But one man did not forget. And his lone eye peers down at the people, scrutinizing and analyzing all their moves. And now, he knows it is time to make his move.

The Hyuuga's abominable open-secret, their Caged Bird Seal, has said to only been able to be removed by one cure: death. And with the lasting effects of Pein's attack, all of the dead Hyuuga find themselves no longer dead. Whispers are spoken but nothing is said - not to friends, not to superiors, not to lovers; only among family.

The lives of three Hyuuga in particular are irrevocably changed: the heir, the spare, and the genius.

And Danzou Shimura, the Sixth Hokage, finds his hands in quite a few pies.

The Branch House is on the rise and they are out for vengeance. Indignation fills their veins but fury clouds their minds. Blood will be spilled, and these young Hyuuga must find a way to stop the madness - whether it be by lies, poisons, politics or otherwise, this clan will be tossed on its back and thrown around.

Who will become the One to rule them all; who will be tossed aside? Or is there even a need for just One, or for One or more to rule at all?

Shy, nervous Hyuuga Hinata finds herself at the center of this maelstrom and questions everything she has ever known.

The preferred daughter of the Main Branch Hanabi finds herself questioning everything her father has ever taught her: all is for the good of the clan - but what constitutes a clan?

Once-in-a-generation prodigy Neji sees his brethren searching for vengeance... yet he is disturbed by the very thing he used to be. Will he fall back into old habits or can he stand up and wade through the dark?

 **Rules:**

Hinata, Hanabi, and Neji: **can be paired up with anyone** ; it is up to the writer if they want romance to be a large or small part of their story.

 **Danzo must die at some point;** as much as I feel he is integral to this challenge, there is no redemption for him. ROOT also does not have to end with Danzo's death.

 **Tsunade, the Elders, and the rest of Konoha can be involved** (if other clans or councils/elders are involved with Danzo, that must be at least slightly developed too, though I won't discourage authors from taking a chunk of text to really work these people in). The primary focus is on Hinata and Neji's generation as well as all of the Hyuuga (that is not to say there cannot be OCs or characters like Tsume or Shikaku involved).

There is **no set genre** or real restrictive 'kind' of work this is meant to be: this can be heavily political, a world of lies and slander through gossip, a descent into the dark for the protagonists where no one wins but they might survive, or a work where lies and deceit overwhelm. Any of those **AND ANYTHING ELSE…** there isn't a real guideline I want to throw out, just some key points.

 **Other characters can become main characters:** they **don't need** to be listed or anything, but they **can** be. What they must be is at least seen throughout the story and their impacts on any of the Hyuuga should be seen as playing a major role; e.g. Danzo can be considered a 'main character' as he is a major antagonist.

 **Don't frame this story in or limit your mind to the belief of 'AU' or 'canon'** in terms of setting; use your mind to explore what you think it should be - to believe in 'AU' as a concept means you fail to believe that you can write. To explore is to simply go and do. Think of what **you** think 'Narutoverse' means. And depending on how you want to mold this, it can become its own entire world (e.g. the Fourth Great Shinobi War does not have to play a role in this challenge if the author does not desire it).


	2. Vanity, Fair

**Summary:** Pein's assault on Konohagakure has wiped the greatest of the five off the map in one single, master stroke. But when all is not lost and every soul is returned, there are secrets overturned; turmoil has been brewing, and the embers of the Hyuuga feud burn brightly. Will they be smothered or shall they grace the sun with their ashes?

Rating: M

Tags: drama, gen,, angst, possible romance, political

* * *

Hyuuga Hanataro was not a loathsome man. He was not spiteful, though he should have been. Instead, he was tired and weary. All his life, he had been led around, a beast with a human's body and mind, but a noose around his neck.

It had once been a sore point for him. He was a person whose youth took his anger and his hatred, much like many of his kinsmen whose flames burned like a _Katon_ that grew into forest-fire. But, also like many of his kinsmen, grief grew and dwarfed his flames.

Grief that could never be exchanged. It began when he was in love with a girl, not quite a woman yet, from another sector of the village. She was but a civilian, and her parents were neither shinobi nor were they anything more than merchants of a small general store. They were proud of it. She was, too.

Their first meeting was short and he scoffed at her; she held him with scorn, too. For all his teachings and learnings, he was as proud a Hyuuga as he was not. They parted, bickering and shouting.

But after several weeks of encounters, he noticed that there was something different about her. He had gotten to know her; a friend of his, if he had to put a word on it. He had noticed there was something wrong with her, and she nervously shied away from talking to him.

His continued pursuit of her merely to talk. She opened up after another week, only to tell him that her father and mother were having a divorce; that the merchant family she had loved so much had not been without faults was natural, but to have it divide her house? Horrifying.

Words caught at his throat and he cried for her, unable to ascertain what measures or things he could do aside from hold and comfort her.

She had survived, strong. Her father remained with her as her mother departed. And over the course of months, Hanataro had begun to court her. Her father liked him, but he was worried; for there were better suitors for her, and yet, all three of them could see the joy in her eyes and the heart in Hanataro's.

So he allowed her to marry him, willingly blessed his daughter with what little dowry he had left along with holding them together as their binder.

She moved in with him at the outskirts of the Hyuuga clan's compound. They laughed, danced, and cried together as she tended to flowers in a nearby store for another clan in Konohagakure and he strove on to gather funds for their house with his steady supply of B ranked missions.

And yet, that peace was an illusion; a dream.

For what joy could he have when after their wedding her father was plagued with illness and they struggled to live, even though he was a member of the illustrious Hyuuga? What manner of life did they have when he was forced to die for their own pockets?

He remembered the stabbing pain of realizing his wife needing an abortion; her lips screaming words incomprehensible as he heard her being marked for the procedure by a doctor of the Main House. A distant relative of the direct line; but not too distant that he held no power.

But to Hanataro, there was not a thought more horrifying than realizing the operation was an excuse to brand her and get rid of his own seed; an 'impure,' seed, despite having brought in an outsider. What taint could he carry?

And his body wracked with sheer spite, the brightest flame of his hate, when he found she had been violated by use of brand and the body of another man; not an unusual tale from the whispers of the Branch members. But one often dismissed the cruelty of reality until their own fates were touched.

The despair which riddled him tormented him fiercely to the point he could no longer sleep; as he stared at his half-empty bed on most nights, he cried for her. Not because he hated her. But that he hated himself and dragged her into this circle of Hell, this vicious, unforgiving cycle.

His mind eroded over time, until he had no thoughts left.

And then she left. As suddenly as she became a fixture, she was gone. Dismissed from the clan and the doctor, she was cast back onto her streets, and he, forbidden to mingle with her again. She hung herself within the following month.

With her, his own heart shattered into fragments far too small to be called shards. Since then, he had been closed to the world. A body with a soul; a heart, with only holes.

But, for all his faults, failures, and brokenness, Hanataro's mind still bled with vigor and keenness; something tested by his waking.

And as he blinked, he felt it. He felt consciousness bite him as he reached into the darkness and roared at Death. He blinked again. He knew he was dead. So why did he feel so alive?

Why did his skin ache; why did it _burn_? Most of all, why could he see so well?

Slowly, his fingers ran themselves along the skin on his forehead. No. No. It was a dream. It was an illusion. His eyes focused, and for the first time, he realized there were no faults in his vision.

His heart churned; his stomach heavy. He felt like he was going to throw up. He did. He crawled about until he saw a pond, and he saw a sight so horrifyingly strange that it caused him to scream in awe.

He was free.


	3. O, Sweet Child of Mine

There was an anger that fleshed itself in the Hyuuga; a thunder that danced in the absence of rain. Contrary to the sadness that shook the village of Konoha as rebuilding consumed the bulk of resources and effort, there was unadulterated, foreign glee that settled in a large part of the village's populace. A happiness laced with the sin of wrath - indignation was the name of that joy, and it spread, a wildfire.

"Come," a cousin said to him. "Follow me, quietly."

The blood of Hyuuga Neji broiled with such confusion, but he did as he was told. What was going on? He paused after he entered the underground room. There were dozens of Hyuuga in here; no, he corrected himself. One hundred. Perhaps even over two hundred.

His eyes flickered back and forth as they drank in the sight of so many Hyuuga. How had he never seen this room before?

Murmurs and musings died as one of them near the center clapped his hands and called for attention. "You, my kin, and yes, _my kind!_ , know the time is now. There is no greater good than what has come of our situation. Many of you do not understand and believe that this is but a dream, or perhaps, you do not yet know. So let me be the one to inform you all that the Seal is _broken_!"

An outroar would have ripped the silence to shreds. And it did so a moment later, the screaming piercing through the eardrums of every member there. Neji stilled in shock, and he found his hands unclasping his hitai-ate. His eyes caught sight of himself against the metal, his reflection purer than any snow he had seen in Yugakure. Even in the torchlight, he could see it clear as day.

The same man spoke again, having caught everyone's attention with his previous declaration. "But now is our chance; we have options. Choice. Fate has given us a new leaf in the pages of our books."

He paused to let his words sink in. His gaze was solemn. Then he went on, "I believe that we can remain here, but built anew. Separated from those _cousins_ ," he spat, "those tyrants of ours. We can also leave." That statement caused widespread commotion - the idea held appeal, but to leave Konohagakure? The village had been the home of all living Hyuuga! It was frightening to consider.

"And finally," his voice dropped in timbre, almost hiss-like, "we can replace our cousins. There are no Branch members any longer, neither are their 'Pure' members of the Main House sect. We are all equals."

Neji closed his eyes. He had long since given up on Fate; but was this theirs? The retribution of clan Hyuuga? The power was at his fingertips, he felt. But it wasn't.

There was another Hyuuga who stood up and cut into everyone's thoughts. "I had long since forgotten the rage in my veins, my heart quenched with eternal sorrows. Those of you here, few of you may remember me. I was once called promising. Not as talented as many of you yourselves, but still noted enough that I ascended to the rank chuunin by the time I was fifteen, and en route to jounin a few years later.

"However, I failed the jounin trials set up for me to continue, and as a mark of disgrace on the Hyuuga name, I was given only meagre missions. Nothing too unimportant that a Hyuuga could be seen doing something of little value. But nothing of vital village intelligence any longer. My future was compromised from that one failure. And yet, I cared not; I still did my duty, for I accepted that the mistakes were none but my own."

His eyes seemed to glaze over as he spoke the next bit, his voice cracking as he did so. "I know my story is not lonely; some of you, I know, have faced the same and worse. What I am about to say is not unknown to your own fates." His breathing was ragged. "I was still young, back then. I met a girl not yet a woman, though budding into one she was; after initial distaste, we grew upon one another. We became open to conversation, then courtship, and then marriage. And there was joy in me when she told me a child was on the way, coupled with the horror of our poverty."

All the assembled flinched. It was true that, no matter how much the Hyuuga looked wealthy, the wealth was all in the hands of the Main House. "We could not afford the child. And so she was told to be rid of it; not by my own wishes or hers, but by _them_ ," he spat. Some of the older Hyuuga saw red. Neji's stomach was unsettled by the direction the story was turning. "Then, she was given a mark, not unlike our own, and taken from our own bed."

A slow trail of tears leaked down his visage. "I… I had, no… I _have_ , never felt so much shame. She fled from us and hung herself. The years made me forget; the resignation set in moons ago. There were things I could have done, I admit - I was young and foolish. But what I could do and what I could not do does not excuse what was done to her."

His final comments struck a chord in Neji, and that was when he understood how wrong he was for most of his life. Perhaps there was Fate; perhaps there was not. But choices were always your own, no matter what the consequences were. You just had to understand possibility, not exactly probability, he realized.

"Many of you might see their acts as demanding vengeance. But that is foolish - when one digs a grave for such a cause, be prepared and make two. This is not revenge against them for her; no," he whispered. "But it can be justice. It is our time to clean the slate."

* * *

"Ow," she grumbled. She poked her left arm with a finger and twitched at how strained her limbs felt. Moving her neck hurt as well, but she was still able to maneuver enough for motion, even if she was currently confined. She had limits, after all.

Hyuuga Hanabi, contrary to popular belief, was not arrogant. She was confident, but she knew that perceptions were everything. To appease her elders and her father, she portrayed the ruse of a princess at all times - there were no flaws with her mask. When found, they were forgotten.

Even in the comfort of her own home, she was guarded but not safe; there were no places where she could ease her heart or leave it lying about. No; there was not one blemish in her armor, nor a crack in her walls. She was Hanabi, fireworks, but she was quietly sizzling. Because she understood; no matter how much anyone treated her sister, it would always be her who would inherit the estate, the name, the wealth, the glory, the face, and the ranks.

It ate at her not because she deserved the spot, but because there was nowhere a shadow was not cast. Who was Hanabi supposed to be? Worse, who was _Hyuuga Hanabi_? Those questions never mattered. Not until now, she thought absentmindedly taking in the damage surrounding Konohagakure.

Her hospital bed was comfortable, she supposed, but it was not comforting. There was so much damage everywhere, to the degree that she had never seen before. Messengers ran back and forth through the halls, and words carried themselves alongside. As such, she heard that the Hyuuga estate was no longer standing.

While she understood that the whole of Konoha had been leveled, it was rather different to understand that her own house, the immovable estate, had crumbled to nothingness. Those were the walls within the walls, the gilded cage that constructed the residence of her childhood memories. But it was gone.

It was humbling to understand that one man, one human, could cause so much destruction. And it made her confusion greater; what was his reason to attack Konoha? Revenge? Boredom? A cold, calculated move from a shinobi nation?

Whatever it was, it boggled her. She wondered, strangely, just what was that man's motive; did he have shoes to fill? Or did he just exist in this void called living? She wondered what it was like to have the freedom to do as you wished, or to have the courage to choose such.

It felt like such a long wait, as time seemed to tick slower than in any of her classes at the shinobi academy.

She shook her head as she lay down, quietly letting the world pass before her. Until she heard something that made her heart freeze. Whispers and rumours were common as sin in the shinobi trade, and having been bred for the job, she was no stranger to such. The nurses that ran in and out of her room grumbled words that made her world turn on her head; words she dare not taste on her lips.

Regardless, she couldn't help but feel further unease due to her security detail. Hanabi always had a caretaker on hand. However, until the attack, that caretaker was always a Hyuuga. Either of the lower caste of the Main House, or Branch house - regardless, one always stood watch over her. Since the day of judgment, she saw only the deadly edges of a jounin whose name she could not remember, for she had not seen him before in her entire life.

It meant only one thing: that the Hyuuga were in disarray. And when Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu walked into her chambers, she felt the fear of ashes walking along her tongue.

* * *

Hyuuga Hinata was a quiet, introverted child. She was considerate, she was emotional when she needed to be, but most of all, she was prone to brooding - perhaps too much - and analyzing every situation she ever encountered. Just like her teacher.

Said teacher looked at her, judgment clear as day in those coal pits for eyes. "Hinata."

"Yes, Shishou?"

"You have spent so much time cloaking yourself in failure." She nodded. That was true. "How much longer do you think the pretense can stand? After what you've done." The scorn in his voice was evident, but without true bite.

"I do not regret what I have done; and I do not fear that I never shall." Her eyes pierced his. He smiled.

"Good. Perhaps there is some fire in you after all." She was visibly startled but did not interrupt. "Many believe that remaining emotionless is the shinobi way. Some believe it to be the only way. But those are fools; no matter how great your wit or how powerful your rhetoric, your logic can, and shall be, particularly in the worst of times, be trumped by rage or warmth. I myself have fallen prey to such thoughts; it is simply that we should strive to be better. Perhaps even to use such a weapon."

She… did not expect such a statement from her teacher, specially considering how she acted recently. Still, she knew there was no forgiving what she had done. "So what is it that you want?"

"I want for you to discover for yourself just what it means to be _shinobi_. The time is ripe, Hinata. You have been waiting for a chance like this all your life, have you not? From the moment you realized that your own Uncle was killed not because he chose to flee Fate, but because your father was envious of his brother enough to steal his bride, only to find that his second child was in fact not his at all."

He turned to look at her, and she met his gaze. "It is time for a new era of Hyuuga, Hinata. The seal is no more. Tell me, then; what are your thoughts?"

Hinata smiled, an emptiness on her lips.


End file.
